How good or bad was this strategy??

[Wad]

I sat down to play in a PPM qualifier yesterday and was the last entrant to the table. I immediately recongnized one solid 2+2 player (S2) at the table and a few other solid players according to my notes. It turned out to be a tough game but did make it to the final 3.

Anyway, I ran into a hand with the following setup:

Blinds are 200/400
Player A is in the SB with T2940.
S2 is in the BB with T2680.
I have T2380 and am dealt /images/graemlins/diamond.gifA /images/graemlins/spade.gifA.

Now I rarely if ever limp with AA but I chose to here as I was hoping to get more than the blinds at this point. Player A folded, S2 checks.

Flop comes /images/graemlins/spade.gif9 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif8 /images/graemlins/heart.gif8

S2 bets 1,000 and I raise all-in, S2 calls.

Turn is /images/graemlins/club.gifJ, river is /images/graemlins/spade.gif6.

S2 shows a 9 with a weak kicker and I take the pot and eventually win the tournament.

While I was obviously happy with the results here I am much more interested in whether or not this was played correctly or anywhere close to it. /images/graemlins/confused.gif

So, would anyone else here limp with AA and 3 players left for deception purposes? Is this a typical play or is it boneheaded?

[Al_Capone_Junior]

With three players left, you should RAISE from the button for deception, rather than limp. They'll expect you to be raising, trying to steal the blinds with weak hands. However, don't put in a big raise like you might when you don't want to be called. Raise the minimum, or close to it, depending on your actions prior to this. You must do so, hoping someone has enough to play with or play back at you. Limping is wrong tho because the BB could have just as easily flopped trips or two crappy pair or something, thus putting a hoitin' on ya.

al

[davidross]

OK, now I remember the hand. I was S2.

I think that was a perfect time for a slowplay. You don't want to just win the blinds with AA at this point, and you got the best possible outcome, I hit part of the flop.

Interestingly enough I used the free replay and won a seat too and my big hand was AA also when 3 handed. I limped in and he went all in on the flop.

[Copernicus]

I like the limp here as well. The two times I think limping with AA or KK makes sense are when you are very short stacked and need to triple or quadruple up to get healthy, and when it is late in a tourney with pretty even stacks.

Before you look at your pockets your 1/3 to win the thing. With AA you are a huge favorite 3 handed, there arent enough hands chasing you that can hit. Trapping into 2 or 3 big blinds extra is a huge swing at this point, putting your chip count as much as 3/1 over one of the others (making you a favorite for the tourney and in great shape for at least 2d), or putting one out if they catch a hand that goes to the river (locking up 2d and a big favorite for first). Thats no time to fear a draw.

If the stacks arent level then I agree that a raise may have some deceptive value. The short stack looks like he's desperate and will raise with anything, the big stack looks like he's trying to overpower the others. A raise from the middle stack looks real though. He isnt likely to risk bluffing his way into third if he gets caught. (In fact a raise from one of 3 level stacks is pretty similar to the middle stack situation. A raise looks real because it risks falling way behind two players. Of course you can always take that another level to "He thinks it looks real to me, so it could be a steal", but when you start that you are into an endless chain of mirrors reflecting each other.)

[Guy McSucker]

I'm with Al.

The blinds are 25% of your stack so it's no great shame just to pick them up. The other players should be expecting you to raise most of the time, so a call should look suspicious. You are offering the BB excellent odds since you will probably not get away from a flop of Q-8-3 to his Q-3.

On the other hand if you've been calling a lot then why not do it again? But if you've been calling a lot you might want to start raising more in the future...

Guy.

[ohkanada]

I don't like the limp 3-handed unless you are limping with a bunch of other hands. And with blinds of 200-400 it is unlikely correct to do much limping.

Ken Poklitar

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Limping on the button 3-handed screams big hand. It's as obvious as in baseball, when it's 1st & 3rd and the pitcher fakes the move to 3rd and then tries to get the guy at 1st. Does the runner on 1st *ever* think it's a real pickoff move to 3rd?

And if you're not from the US that was a really lousy example. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

No offense, but....how many tables were you playing?? /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[boots]

i love having AA from a steal position, for the reason Al stated - if you make a standard, minimum raise, tough agressive players will often repspond by calling or reraising, and then betting the flop, to see how much of a hand you have. Now of course you can take control...

As far as limping with aces, the main problem arises when you face a big bet on the flop that you are reluctant to call - you have no read at all on the range of hands your opponents could have, so if the flop comes J-5-3 rainbow, and you face an all-in bet from the big blind (which you should not be at all reluctant to call, except for the fact that you just let him play for free), you can't complain when you call and he turns over J-5 /images/graemlins/confused.gif...

so, i'd say, if you're limping with aces, you have to be willing to end up all in post-flop on all but the scariest of flops, and take some beats in the process.

-JK